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I had the band placed two days ago yet I am not really feeling any restriction. I expected that I would especially considering the swelling. I can get water and other liquids down really easily, I haven't and wont be trying anything pureed or solid until it is time but it feels as though I could. Has anyone else had this experience? I know it is still early days but I'd feel better knowing if others had gone through this too.

I'm headed for a short girls weekend away tonight and it will consist of a lot of lovely food places, cheese, fudge, berries etc.
This week I think I had a (sort of) epiphany about my band. I was browsing through the forums on here and someone had linked The 8 Golden Rules of Lapband. I decided to watch them and the diagrams really helped my head understand what my body is going through when I eat food.
I actually look a lot away from it, and this week feel like I have done a much better job of listening to my body, abiding my the 8 Golden Rules and in return, I haven't had too much drama!!
One of the big things for me was accepting that in the morning my band will not tolerate food. So all this week I started with tea and then around lunch time I would try something easy like fish. It seems to have been working well for me. Another rule I like is stop eating after 20 minutes. And the other one is wait a full minute between bites. All of those have been lifesavers for me this week.
So I am nervous and excited to see how my band and I cope this weekend. There will be a lot of temptation!

I have had numerous restriction levels during the 3.5 years I've had my band.
I still remember the day I experienced what restriction felt like for the first time! I had just been to see my surgeon for the second time since the operation and I had gone from 2mls to 4mls. That evening I made a chicken and cheese toasted sandwich, which at 2mls wouldn't have been a problem whatsoever. I took a bite, not even thinking, chewed and swallowed and gulp... What was happening...
When people ask me what I mean when I say 'it won't work' or 'it didn't work' or 'my band didn't like it', I find it really hard to explain to them what it actually feels like. For me, I have 4 different feels when I eat something.
1. No problem, goes down with absolutely zero problem, like I don't even have a band.
2. Feels momentarily uncomfortable: but I know within 30seconds to 1minute it will pass through the band.
3. Uncomfortable verging on a little painful: this will take anywhere between 5-20minutes to pass the band and I know I have to give up.
4. Stuck. Extremely painful, will 100% need to bring the food back up, excessive saliva.
So that day, that I had taken a bite of the sandwich, I was probable at a level 2. But I gave up straight away because that feeling scared me.
Over the years I became more brave/stupid, about pushing limits with my band and what I could eat. It's not uncommon for me, now, to eat something and straight away know it's a number 3, but persevere for up to 2-3 hours to eat, just half of whatever it is. This is when I might have a bite and it takes up to 20 minutes for the discomfort to not actually dissapate, but just decrease in intensity, for me to take another bite. This leads to a couple of hours of feeling uncomfortable and slightly in pain, all for a few mouthfuls of food.
That, is SO, stupid. What I'm doing here is letting my mind win. And simultaneously traumatising my band. It also ruins the rest of my day because I have pushed my limits so far, that any time later that day I try to eat/drink something, it 'doesn't work'.
How do I get my 'newly banded' mindset back where I was so careful of everything I put in my mouth and I was so worried about feeling number 2 that I rarely every experienced number 3 or 4?
Does anyone else have a similar experience, or a 'levels of restriction' scale they acknowledge?